Education
The Graduate Center, CUNY, NYC Ph.D., May 2001, M.Phil., Magna Cum Laude, 1999, English Composition/Rhetoric
Dissertation: The Tightrope of Desire: Lessons from Oscar Browning
Dissertation Prize: Paul Monette Outstanding Dissertation in the Field of Gay and Lesbian Literature
City College of New York, CUNY, NYC Masters of Arts, 1995, Magna Cum Laude, English Language and Literacy
Thesis: The Queen’s English: The Forms and Functions of Gaylect
Beaver College (now Arcadia), Glenside, PA Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1984, Summa Cum Laude, Printmaking
Thesis: La Maison d’Etre, Monotype Prints on Handmade Paper
Bio
Mark McBeth teaches undergraduates in the English Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Ph.D. candidates at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He specializes in composition & rhetoric at the intersections of literacy studies and Queer theory. His recent book Queer Literacies: Discourses & Discontents examines the homophobic discourses of the 20th century and celebrates the advanced literacy labors (aka, reading, writing, research, and critical response) that Queer literates undertook to upend heteronormative constructions and worldviews. His former work has looked at Victorian teacher training at Cambridge, UK. He has likewise published on writing program administration, pedagogy, and similar issues.
Along with his John Jay comp/rhet faculty colleagues, he has won numerous awards for curricular programming devised at John Jay. Moreover, he has been an executive committee member of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and has worked on the editorial boards of various national writing studies journals.
Professional Memberships
Council of Writing Program Administrators, Executive Board, 2011-2014
Conference of College Composition and Communication
Course Taught
Queer Literacies: Discourses & Discontents (Ph.D. seminar) • Multiliteracies: Evolutions & Complexities (Ph.D. seminar) • Critical Experimental Writing: The Theories & Practices (Ph.D. seminar) • Curriculum Building: Writing Courses/Literacy Initiatives/Composition Programming (Ph.D. Seminar) • Introduction to Ph.D. Studies in English (Ph.D. seminar) • Seduction of the Archives (Ph.D. seminar) • Queer Lines of Communication (Ph.D. seminar) • Introduction to Writing Program Administration (Ph.D. seminar) • How the Eye/I Writes: Synthesizing 21st-Century Literacies (Master’s Seminar) • Visual Rhetorics & Literacies (Master's Seminar) • Graduate Introduction to Linguistics for Teachers (Master’s Seminar) • Graduate Teaching Seminar (Master’s Seminar) • Graduate Writing for Public Management (Master’s Seminar) • Research Methods • John Jay Online English 201: Subway • Understanding Genre/Form/Voice • Writing for Business • Prose: Form • Prose: Freelancing • Core Humanities • English Composition Basic Writing Courses • English Composition Freshman Core Writing Course • Writing for the Humanities • Writing for Education • Prose: Voice • Empirical Research • Tutor Training Workshop
Languages spoken/fluent in
Scholarly Work
Books:
Queer Literacies: Discourses and Discontents. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2019.
Teacher Training at Cambridge: The Initiatives of Oscar Browning and Elizabeth Hughes, co-authored with Dr. Pam Hirsch, Cambridge University. London. Woburn Press, 2004.
Edited Collection:
Literacy and Learning in Crisis: Emergent Teaching Through Emergencies. Peter Lang, Publisher, Forthcoming 2022.
Peer Reviewed Journals/Book Chapters:
"Equal Opportunity Programming & Optimistic Program Assessment: First-Year Writing Program Design and Assessment at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Composition Forum 33 (Spring 2017): n. pgs. Web.
“An Apologia and a Way Forward: In Defense of the Lecturer Line in Writing Programs” with Tim McCormack Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity. (Eds.) Seth Kahn, Bill Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado/Fort Collins, CO: The WAC Clearinghouse, 2017. 41-56.
“Queerying the First-Year Composition Student (and Teacher): A Democratizing Endeavor” with Tara Pauliny in Queer Landscapes: Mapping Space(s) of Praxis and Pedagogy Eds., James E. Wermers, Elizabeth McNeil, and J. Oakleaf Lunn. Palgrave Macmillan Queer Studies in Education. (2017)
“WPAs Go To Work—for a Decade: Building a First-Year Writing Program” with Tim McCormack. Writing Program Architecture: Thirty Cases for Reference and Research. (Eds.) Finer, Bryna Siegel and White-Farnham, Jamie). Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. 128-139.
“Revising by Numbers: An Evaluation from the Innumerate” in Journal of Response to Writing 1.2 (August 2015): n. pgs. Web.
Honors and Awards
Certificate of Recognition, Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2017
Faculty Recognition Award, Distinguished Teaching, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2013.
Certificate for Excellence in Writing Programs, Conference of College Composition & Communication, 2013.
Special Recognition Essay Award for “Memoranda of Fragile Machinery,” Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2009.
National Award for Innovation in Basic Writing Curriculum, Conference of Basic Writing, 2007.
Research Summary
Mark McBeth does primarily archival research investigating the intersections of literacy, Queer theory, and activism. Rather than consider literacy a simplistic venture in early reading and writing, he looks at life-long uses of literacy abilities that help navigate heteronormative, racist, and cisgenderist (among other discriminatory practices) worlds for Queer people.
